Windows 2000 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) brings hundreds of thousands of Microsoft's customers that much closer to the final version of this milestone operating system. In addition to bug fixes and new drivers (such as native SB Live! and 3dfx Voodoo3 support), Windows 2000 RC1 also delivers a few new features....More

Mobile users, so-called power users, programmers, and anyone else that likes to get the most from their system are good candidates for the upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows 2000. But will it work?...More

I figured I'd try to take advantage of the new mobile features in Windows 2000 Beta 3. These include Offline Files and Folders and Offline Web Pages. The goal here, of course, is to give the mobile worker access to network and Internet resources when a pervasive connection isn't available (such as at 30,000 feet). Let's see how (or if) they work....More

Though most of the user-related improvements in Windows 2000 are pretty obvious and related to the graphical user interface, Microsoft has actually been working to improve the command line interface (CMD, the Windows 2000 CLI) as well. The Windows 2000 command line gives you access to a fairly rich environment, especially when compared to its Windows 9x relations....More

By default, Windows 2000 tries to hide the complexity of the system from users while also providing a level of protection for itself from those same users. One of the methods it uses is the new Explorer nag screens, and for many out there, this kind of safeguard can be downright annoying. Any self-respecting power user will want to get rid of this feature....More

Office 2000 is a massive beast, eager to eat up as much hard drive space as you'll give it. But it's also a worthy and compelling upgrade to the previous version, Office 97, for certain users. Should you upgrade?...More

In Windows 2000, Microsoft removed the custom install option, which allows the user to pick and choose the desired components that are installed during Setup. What if you've already installed Beta 3 (Professional or Server) and would like to remove some of the more annoying Windows components, such as the Accessibility features or the games?...More

Windows 2000 Professional is designed for business desktops and corporate mobile users that require access to their data and personalized settings regardless of physical location. Though it is designed solely for businesses, power users and software developers will probably flock to Windows 2000 Professional as they did with Windows NT Workstation. And they should: This is the best desktop operating system that Microsoft has ever created....More

With the introduction of Windows 2000 Server Beta 3, Microsoft raises the bar for mid-level department servers, home/small office servers, and web servers by offering a reliable and scalable upgrade to Windows NT 4.0 Server that implements the best features of its predecessor while improving some of the more problematic areas. And like Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server is a compelling upgrade....More

In my month-long experience with Windows NT 5.0, however, I've tried to retain the default settings (for the most part in an attempt to live with NT 5.0 the way Redmond intended, and I've installed the programs I normally use. So I'd like to share some observations about how Windows NT 5.0 works as a replacement for current versions of Windows (95, 98, or NT 4.0). Specifically, I'm going to take a look at the programs I've installed and determine whether they work at all in NT 5.0....More

Network Neighborhood, the stalwart network resources browser from previous versions of Windows, has been replaced in Windows NT 5.0 with "My Network Places," a cutesy name for a disarmingly different piece of functionality. One might assume that My Network Places is simply a renamed Network Neighborhood. One would be wrong with such an assumption....More

Windows NT 5.0 includes an integrated component of the system Control Panel called Folder Options that can be used to set folder options on a folder- or system-wide basis. Depending on how you access Folder Options--via the Control Panel applet or from the View menu in a My Computer/Explorer window, you may see different options....More

Internet Explorer 5.0is more componentized than its predecessor and, in a bid to stay ahead of the feds should things turn disastrous in court, can be broken down into small enough chunks so that users can install only the system file updates if needed. Overall, IE 5.0 is an incremental, evolutionary rather than revolutionary, upgrade to IE 4.0. It appears to address most of the problems of IE 4.0 while adding new user-oriented features....More

This article takes a look at the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) in broad terms and then describes the steps needed to create a custom management console. The examples in this article are based on Windows NT Workstation 5.0 Beta 2; please note that a Server setup will offer even more management possibilities....More

The Windows NT 5.0 Technical Workshop was held at the Sheraton Towers in Seattle on August 18-19, 1998. Microsoft Senior Vice President Jim Allchin opened the conference with a technical and marketing overview of Windows NT 5.0, and he was followed up by a series of technical sessions on distributed services, core architecture, networking, communications and printing, distributed applications, management infrastructure, IntelliMirror, hardware support and multimedia, mobile enhancements, and UI....More

Windows NT Workstation 5.0 is, at first glance, very similar to Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT 4.0. Day-to-day use of Windows NT 5.0 is, therefore, notably similar to previous versions of Windows although there are many improvements as well....More

After totally dropping the ball with Outlook 97, Microsoft has redeemed itself and then some with this early beta of Outlook 98. Outlook 98 Technical Beta 1 hints at the direction future Office products will take while offering a much-needed refresh to the weakest link in the Office 97 suite....More

In October 1994, I began working with the M2 release of Windows "Chicago," which went on to become known as Windows 4.0 and, finally, Windows 95. Already a published co-author of a Visual Basic 3.0 bo......More

The new iMac G5 ships with an exclusive digital media environment called Front Row, which can be controlled via a bundled remote control. Many people--myself included--have described Front Row as a Media Center rip-off because, well, that's exactly what it is....More

What I Use

Like many, I was hoping to see a new Lumia flagship before the end of 2014, and while I was pleasantly surprised in some ways by both the Lumia 735 and 830, neither offers the level of performance or best-in-market camera quality I had come to expected from Microsoft/Nokia's high-end devices. So I pulled the trigger on an unlocked Windows Phone flagship that will hopefully take me through at least the first half of this year. Or until Microsoft gets off its low-end fixation and satisfies the needs of its biggest fans....More

It's been a while since the last What I Use, but there haven't been many major changes since late last year: Surface Pro 3 has become my go-to travel companion, I've added a third cellphone line for testing Windows Phone, Android and iPhone side-by-side, and have rotated through some new tablets and other devices. We've also switched from FIOS to Comcast and added to our set-top box collection....More